This is an old photograph of Henry Ford that some of you may enjoy taking a look at. I found the negative and developed it. The 4 x 6 picture one can see in this listing is not the original, but the negative is which is about 5L x 4W inches. Since this is a negative it is safe to say I believe that this is the only one produced of this picture. Correct me if I am wrong. This and the Einstein photo I listed on here were part of the same collection from an individual that had many of these sorts of original items.

The side of the negative says Kodak Safety 102. The license plate says 1914 NY 71354. So this helps possibly date the photograph. Henry Ford is sitting in the passenger seat. Does anyone know who the driver may be or anyone else in the picture? He kinda looks like Santa Claus. ; ) Also which car is this? I believe it is a Model T. This is the reason I am marking this as an unsolved mystery. Thank you in advance for any feedback any of you may provide.

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Comments

electobacco, 4 years agoHey Manikin long time no see! I hope all is well. Thanks for the love and have a blessed day! : )

electobacco, 4 years agoI appreciate you loving this item and the thorough response PhilDavid. I am very thankful. Great information.

electobacco, 4 years agoManikin, mustang, pw, poop, beach, blunder, and vetra thank you so much for loving this and other items of mine. All of you are always welcome to pass by my neck of the woods.... : )

rniederman, 4 years agoI cannot tell you about the car’s driver, but I can share details about the film negative. The term “Safety” appearing on the top edge means the base material is cellulose diacetate (or cellulose acetate) as opposed to earlier nitrate based film. “Safety” means that the film is not flammable. This is important in dating the negative because Kodak started marking their acetate films with the word “Safety” starting around 1930.

Additionally, the negative and (and a positive I made of the negative using photo-editing software) shows what appears to be a re-photograph of an earlier card mounted picture; which is a common practice when there is a desire to preserve rare pictures.

All-in-all, the negative cannot be earlier than the 1930s. Regardless, I like the picture of Ford. ~ Rob

electobacco, 4 years agoThanks for the love BELLIN! Great seeing you around. Happy Holidays to you and your as well my friend! : )

electobacco, 4 years agoAwesome information Rob! Thank you so much for sharing and loving the picture. I am ever so grateful for your expertise. So what you are saying is that this is possibly a rare photo that was originally a card mounted picture made into a negative as we see here to preserve it? So this would probably be the only one of this type made based on your experience? So it seems that it would still be highly collectable in this state as opposed to being the original card mounted picture? Thank you for your patience with my questions. It is an exciting and historical piece. Wishing you and your family nothing but the best my friend! : ) ~Anthony

rniederman, 4 years agoIn regards to this being the 'only one' (or whatever), it's difficult to know the motivation. It could be that the original negative was lost and a record of the image was needed or desired. If it were a professional copy job, I'd expect to see the image squared up with more precision. I've done copy work shooting up to 8x10 negs and you work hard to make sure everything is spot on. This looks more 'casual' but it's still an effort making a 4x5 neg. Regardless, the original image would still be the most desirable thing to have. But if the neg is gone and there are no originals prints to be found, then this is a great record of a lost image. You probably need to do some digging. .: Rob

electobacco, 4 years agoRob thank you so much once again for the additional information. I guess I have some research to do.... : ) ~Anthony

walksoftly, 4 years agoThe guy in the the driver's seat kinda looks like Alexander Graham Bell.
But it could very well be Santa!
Great picture regardless!

electobacco, 4 years agokerry thanks for the love and I appreciate you liking the post as well stones.

electobacco, 4 years agowalk you are right! It does seem to look like Alexander Graham Bell. He was alive then and had the facial hair like the guy in this picture around the 1914 time frame. So awesome call and thanks for sharing the post as well as enjoying the picture. Peace out.... : )

JHERTL, 4 years agoHello, I am the person who Bought this negative, so here is my research and I could also be wrong but…